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Ivor Novello

1 of 38 portraits of Ivor Novello

Angus McBean Photograph. © Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University.

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Ivor Novello

by Angus McBean
bromide print, 1947
14 3/4 in. x 11 3/4 in. (375 mm x 298 mm)
Purchased, 1977
Primary Collection
NPG P65

Sitterback to top

  • Ivor Novello (1893-1951), Actor-manager, dramatist and composer. Sitter in 38 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Angus McBean (1904-1990), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 283 portraits, Sitter in 79 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Pepper, Terence, Angus McBean Portraits, 2006 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 5 July to 22 October 2006), p. 64 Read entry

    For the second in the ‘Play Personalities' series McBean showed Ivor Novello, his fellow Celt and instigator of the first play production pictures, leaning on a series of leather-bound editions of his most famous dramas and musicals. Titles shown (from left to right) are The Crest of a Wave (1937), Glamorous Night (1935), Perchance to Dream (1945), The Dancing Years (1939), Ladies into Action (1940), I Lived With You (1932), The Rat (1925), Comédienne (1938) and Proscenium (1933). At the top of the composition a fountain-pen-wielding hand writes out the words and music of one of Novello’s most famous songs from Perchance to Dream, 'We'll Gather Lilacs'. McBean’s signature appears in mirror-image on the blotter.

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1947back to top

Current affairs

Princess Elizabeth marries Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey. Philip renounced his title of Prince of Greece and Denmark, to become Duke of Edinburgh when he married the heir to the throne.

Art and science

The first Edinburgh Festival includes performances by Kathleen Ferrier, Alec Guinness and Margot Fonteyn. The Festival is now a major annual international arts event that takes place over three weeks every August, and includes top class performers in theatre, music and dance as well as lesser-known performers who take part in the parallel 'Fringe Festival'.

International

India is granted independence from the British Empire and the former British Raj is partitioned into India and Pakistan. After various revolts and several years of civil disobedience led by Gandhi and his Quit India Movement, Britain agrees to disband the Raj and grant independence to India.
Palestine is partitioned into a Jewish State, an Arab State and a small internationally administered zone.

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